O Pioneers! March 18, 2011

Silence Dogood here. Our friend Ben and I have been vacationing at our beloved Log Cabin Motor Court in scenic Asheville, North Carolina, where we stay in our own little log cabin in the woods. (You can see a selection of the cabins, interiors and amenities on their website, www.cabinlodging.com.) When we travel here, you can find us as often sitting in front of our cheerful wood fire with a book (or, in my case, knitting) and a cup of coffee or glass of wine as out and about enjoying the delights of Asheville.

This seems to bemuse our friends and loved ones no end. Just yesterday, one couple asked us why we were so addicted to the place. We gave them a tour of our current little cabin and raved on about the privacy, quiet, wireless access and other amenities, rustic charm, fully equipped kitchen, serene private porch with strings of little white lights, dog-friendliness, and the like. We even took them to the quirky, delightful Bavarian restaurant at the foot of the Log Cabin Motor Court, itself in a matching cabin. (See their website, www.BavarianDining.com, for menus and directions.)

Our friends were still bemused. Why didn’t we want to stay with them at the huge (and, to us, monstrously ugly) Grove Park Inn with its spa, restaurants, and boutiques instead? Or, if we were so addicted to the Log Cabin Motor Court, why didn’t we rent their two-storey modern cottage, which would give us more room, instead of a log cabin?

At the time, I didn’t know what to say to them. (OFB was too busy talking about the finer points of German beer with Doc, the owner of the Bavarian Restaurant, to pay attention.) Hadn’t I just explained?! It wasn’t until 4 a.m., when I was awakened by a crackling log in the fireplace, that I realized that I hadn’t really anwered our friends at all. You see, the whole point is that these are log cabins.

Most kids dream of being rock stars or sports stars or actors or doctors, lawyers, educators, or, say, inventors of the next iPad or big computer game when they grow up. But when I was a kid, I had no interest in any of that stuff. I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: a pioneer. I’d been raised with Fess Parker as Daniel Boone. I devoured every book on the pioneers I could get my hands on: The Last Trail; Wilderness Road, Virginia; Little House in the Big Woods and the rest of the series; The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans; anything at all about Daniel Boone. My parents were constantly taking us to historic sites, most of which featured log cabins. These forays seemed to have no effect on my siblings, but I was a goner. I wanted my own log cabin in the woods.

I never did get that cabin (yet, anyway), but our forays to the Log Cabin Motor Court give me the chance to bring my childhood fantasies to life, at least for a few days every year. I wouldn’t trade that opportunity for a free stay at a Moroccan palace or a French chateau or a Mediterranean villa, much as OFB and I would enjoy any of the above. Luxurious lodgings in a beautiful place: incredible. The chance to make one’s childhood dreams come true: priceless.